# John Harris **Domain:** Bioethics / Human Enhancement **Doc Type:** Thinker Node **Maturity:** Developing ## Definition **John Harris** is a bioethicist and author of *Enhancing Evolution*. In his 2007 *New Humanist* essay “Getting better all the time,” he argued that beneficial genetic enhancement could be a moral duty, not merely an option. ## Argument and Scope Harris framed enhancement around health, intelligence, lifespan, future people, and objections about autonomy. His essay is philosophical advocacy. It does not certify an existing intervention for reliably increasing complex traits, nor does it settle disagreement about effects on future children. [[wiki/Self-Directed Evolution|Self-Directed Evolution]] keeps this normative argument distinct from technological capability and from selection among embryos. ## Relationships - **Advocates:** [[wiki/Self-Directed Evolution|Self-Directed Evolution]] through the ethical claim that beneficial genetic enhancement could be obligatory under some conditions. - **Distinct from:** [[wiki/Embryo Selection|Embryo Selection]], which selects among existing embryos rather than editing or guaranteeing future traits. - **Debated alongside:** [[wiki/Eugenics|Eugenics]], whose historical coercive practices and present-day conceptual uses require source-specific distinctions rather than automatic equivalence. - **Thematic routes:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]], [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]], [[articles/The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley|The Evolutionary Roots of Silicon Valley]], and [[articles/Walking the Beautiful Path Through the Greatest Transformation in Human History|Walking the Beautiful Path Through the Greatest Transformation in Human History]] provide related human-futures contexts without implying Harris authored those works. ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts > “... I argue that it is not only feasible to use genetic technology to make people more healthy, intelligent and longer-lived, it’s our moral duty to do so.” > **— John Harris**, *“Getting better all the time,” New Humanist, November 5, 2007* [[reminders/Evolution/Genetic Enhancement Is a Moral Duty by John Harris|Genetic Enhancement Is a Moral Duty by John Harris]] ## Sources / Provenance - [John Harris, “Getting better all the time,” *New Humanist* (2007)](https://newhumanist.org.uk/articles/getting-better-all-the-time/) — authored essay and quotation source.